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VANCOUVER -- One week after their mother was killed by kidnappers, Honduras lawyer Mauricio Osorto and his two brothers fled to seek refuge in Canada, fearful they would be targeted next.

They arrived in Vancouver with nothing in June, 2011. Osorto, 33, did not speak English and struggled to start his life again.

For months the siblings did not seek psychological help since they had never needed mental health support in the past. But at the urging of their immigration lawyer, Osorto and his brothers, both university students, agreed to visit the Vancouver Association for Survivors of Torture (VAST). Although it was initially “awkward” they soon found the support they got there was helping them to move forward, he said.

“Every day I am haunted by what happened. I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t want to start at zero.

“It’s not easy but they (VAST psychologists) gave me motivation and helped me a lot,” said Osorto.

VAST has a 27-year history of providing psychological counselling and enhanced settlement services to immigrants and refugees who endured torture, trauma and or political violence in their country of origin and continue to carry the scars.

When VAST loses its federal funding on March 31 it will face an uncertain future, and Osorto worries where others like him will go for help if it closes.

Some of the people who have benefited from VAST suffer post-traumatic stress, major depression or chronic pain, said VAST executive director Dylan Mazur.

He said last year the association helped 633 survivors from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Colombia, Nigeria and Mexico to name a few. While there are still community-based psychiatric services and paid counselling available in Vancouver, there isn’t the kind of organization that has the kind of capacity, experience and the history as VAST,” he said.

“My questions are, where would others refer to if VAST wasn’t around? And where do we refer out (if VAST closes)? The truth is, there are no answers to these questions.”

Mazur said VAST is trying to find alternative sources of funding.

“My hope is the province will continue to fund mental health services for refugees,” he said.

VAST had relied on federal transfer payments to B.C., which the province then provided to the organization to provide services for clients who suffered trauma. But last year, after the federal government decided to stop the transfer of those funds and to pay contractors directly, VAST lost its main source of funding. Mazur explained the federal government doesn’t directly support agencies working with clients who have endured trauma.

“We’re the only agency of our kind providing community-based mental health services. The province had a trauma stream to support an agency likes ours but the federal government doesn’t have that stream,” said Mazur.

They are not alone in their quest to find an alternative funding source.

The West Coast Mental Health Network is another Vancouver organization providing services to people needing mental health support. It lost its funding from Vancouver Coastal Health on Dec. 1 and is struggling to stay open now with volunteers.

The network provides peer-run, social support groups, for approximately 700 people suffering from mental illness in the city. The WCMHN has operated for 20 years.

It has relied on Vancouver Coastal Health since 2001 to help fund its organization, but after the health authority reviewed where it was spending its health dollars, that network lost the full funding amount of nearly $98,000 a year.

“It really angered me to hear the funding was cut in its entirety. To cancel the contracts and leave us limping along is unforgivable,” said Ron Carten, the Health Network’s former executive director.

A spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Anna-Marie D’Angelo, said the funding was a grant to pay for the salary of the executive director, the publication of a newsletter and office supplies. But since the money isn’t directly going towards health care, a decision was made to stop the funding.

“We don’t deny they provide a useful service but it’s not a health service,” said D’Angelo.

“We need to put our funding into direct health services.”

She said the network is an advocacy group but VCH would support the organization in its efforts to find another funder.

She said the health authority, in collaboration with Vancouver Police, is instead funding the ACT Treatment program that began in 2011 bringing health care and life skills support to some of the most difficult clients with mental health issues.

Mazur said VAST is looking at its options once the federal funding, which makes up 75 per cent of its budget, ends soon.

“The plan is to continue in some form. It might be a smaller form — it depends on securing additional funding,” he said. “If we’re forced to close our doors ... it will represent a crisis in refugee mental health in this province.”

Mazur said provincial funding that supported mental health services at the Bridge Clinic, which also offered counselling to refugees, is also ending and for the Family Services of Greater Vancouver’s mental health services.

He noted as these organizations have been wrapping up their services, VAST has been asked to take on their caseloads.

He added VAST also receives referrals from settlement service agencies as well health institutions such as Bridge Clinic, Burnaby General Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital, Surrey Memorial Hospital, as well as neighbourhood houses and school boards (Vancouver school board), as well as the Canadian Red Cross.

“If VAST does not survive, there will be nowhere to refer refugees with mental health concerns.”

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